What's in a Tree
by wickedwritergirl
Summary: A two-shot from a prompt I got on tumblr: "A soulmate AU where Connor has a tree tattoo." And a second chapter because I got prompted to do a followup to find out about Evan's tattoo. Rating's for Connor's potty mouth.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I got a prompt on tumblr to write from "a soulmate au where Connor has a tree tattoo", and then got prompted to write a followup to it. So, here's my take on it. Happy reading! -S**

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Connor sighed. Larry was at it again.

"I'm just saying, most people have it figured out by 18." He complained. Connor rolled his eyes but kept quiet. He'd had this argument too many times.

"Larry." Cynthia tried to shush him to avoid a fight. "Let him be."

"But Cynthia, he's 18 already, he should have found his soulmate by now!" Larry continued on. "It's just how it goes! I don't understand why he has to be so different!"

That's when Connor had enough.

"Unbelievable." He muttered as he got up from the breakfast table. "Sorry to disappoint you, Larry, but this stupid thing isn't exactly a map." He half-yelled while pointing at his soulmate tattoo. "You got off easy! You guys have halves of the same picture! Zoe's been dating for years because so many people have stars and she convinced herself they're all the same, but now she figured out there's a person who has the same styled stars she does! The font! The freaking font is the same! Good for her! But this?" Connor points to his arm again, "I've never seen this damn tree in my life, except on my arm. I'm not sure it even exists! Maybe it's a fluke! Either way, I can't change it, I was BORN with it! If anything, be mad at the universe. Just get off my back!"

Connor finally finished his rant, grabbed his jacket and walked out of the house. All of the things he told Larry, were all things he'd tried to explain to him before. He just wouldn't get it.

The societal pressure to find your soulmate, the person to complete you and make you happy, was… A lot. And Larry was right, most people met their soulmates in their teenage years. Of course there were exceptions, so Connor being 18 and without a soulmate shouldn't be the end of the world, but in Larry's mind, like always, Connor not being exactly who he wanted him to be, was disappointing.

When Zoe found her soulmate, only 6 months ago, Larry was happy for her and then immediately questioned how come Connor, the older brother, hadn't found his.

Connor kicked an empty beer can as he stomped towards his high school. He didn't want to admit it to Larry, but the constant nagging got to him. He started getting nervous about his soulmate too. Maybe they didn't exist? It would make sense. Connor's soulmate tattoo was strange compared to most's.

Most soulmate tattoos were either halves of the same picture, similar by design or soulmates would have a tattoo representing the other.

Connor's tattoo was the most unreal looking tree he'd ever seen. The concept of a tree as a soulmate tattoo alone was quite unusual, and the tree on Connor's arm was indeed strange. It looked almost cartoon like, with a too straight of a trunk and strange little twigs holding all the strange little leaves above the whole tree.

All his life, Connor would be on the look out for a tree like that, but he'd never seen one. He started to believe that this kind of tree didn't exist and therefore his soulmate wouldn't either.

Great. It was barely 8am and Connor was in a foul mood. Maybe being at school wasn't such a good idea.

"Hey Murphy, looking murderous as usual!" Came an annoying voice somewhere in front of Connor in the hall. Kleinman…

"What the fuck do you want now, Kleinman?" Connor murmured a reply.

"Nothin'. Just making conversation." Kleinman smirked back.

"Well go do it somewhere else." Connor shot back. Kleinman got on his nerves and he seemed to enjoy it.

Kleinman lifted his arms in a defensive manner.

"Geez okay, no need to make me the first target of your school shooting!"

Connor saw red. He knew he wasn't a nice guy, but fuck did Kleinman have the nerve to call him a-

"Jared, stop…" Came a quiet, frankly scared sounding voice.

Surprised, Connor lifted his head to see a nervous looking boy standing slightly behind Kleinman.

Hansen, was it?

"What? I'm just saying-"

"Fuck off, Kleinman. I mean it." Connor spit out before he could stop himself. It had been a bad morning and it wouldn't take much to get him angry enough for physical confrontation.

Kleinman rolled his eyes and then turned around to walk the hallway to the opposite direction. "That is why you shouldn't do drugs, kids!" He screamed, pointing at Connor while he went.

"Fucking asshole…" Connor muttered under his breath to not particularly anyone.

Connor felt a presence and turned his head to see Hansen still standing there, a step closer to Connor than he was before, looking extremely nervous. That seems to be the kid's branding.

"What are you looking at?" Connor asked, immediately regretting his angry tone. After all, the kid had defended him, if you could call it that.

"I- uh, I just-t wanted to ssay sorry." Came the reply.

"Why?" Connor asked, genuinely confused.

"F-for Jared, I mean. He- he can be…" Hansen tried to explain but Connor cut in.

"An asshole?"

Hansen blushed. "I- well, uh, yeah, but see, he-he's not t-terrible, he's just…" Hansen struggled to find a word and then finally settled for: "Jared."

Connor huffed out a small laugh. "Sure. Still, it's not your problem, you don't have to apologize for him."

Hansen blushed again. Another thing he seemed to do quite a lot.

"I know, I just… It was, you know, un-uncalled for. So… Yeah." He mumbled.

"Well, it's all cool, dude." Connor replied, trying to reassure the visibly nervous boy.

Hansen seemed pleased by this. "Okay. Well. C-cool?" He replied, turning away from Connor, but he seemed hesitant. After a few seconds he turned around to face Connor again.

"B-by the way, I uh, I like your tattoo." He finally said.

That made Connor freeze in his spot. He glanced at his arm, where the tattoo on his forearm was visible, since he had his sleeve rolled up.

"You… You do?" He asked, completely unsure how to react.

"Yeah." Hansen said, now seeming a bit more confident in his speech. "Dragon's blood tree is one of my favorites."

Connor felt like he couldn't breathe. "The what?"

Hansen took a step closer to Connor and pointed at his tattoo. "Dragon's blood tree? Dracena Cinnibaris. It's one of my favorite species. It naturally only exists in one place on the earth. Some say it looks alien, like it doesn't belong on earth, but I… I really like it." He explained with weird passion in his voice.

Connor couldn't find words. Never had anyone commented on his tattoo, other than to ask what the hell it was. This Hansen kid actually knew what it was and it meant something to him and it seemed like his love for the tree wasn't very trivial either. Wait… It meant something to him…

"Well, anyway… I should- I should get to class. So, uh, bye." Hansen mumbled before finally walking away. All Connor could do was stare at his blue shirt disappearing into the crowded hallway.

The bell rang. Connor still didn't move.

Finally, as the reality of what just happened dawned on him, he found his words again.

"Holy fucking hell."

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 **Please review! xx -S**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Here's chapter 2! Happy reading! -S**

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Connor felt like a stalker.  
His presence in the school cafeteria caused some eyes to turn to his direction immediately. Connor Murphy didn't spend his lunch hours in the school cafeteria, but today was different.  
Connor caught himself staring at Hansen's back again. Seriously, if anyone paid attention to him for more than a second - unlikely - and knowing his reputation, they might feel the need to make sure Hansen was safe.  
Connor felt like a creep but at the same time, he could not stop staring at Hansen. He couldn't stop thinking about him and what happened earlier that morning.  
Considering everything, it seemed that Connor had finally found his soulmate. However, at the age of 18, most of the years which he had believed there to not be a soulmate for him, he was skeptical. He was thinking about doing a pros and cons list and immediately felt like a loser.  
Then a thought occurred to him.  
If he indeed had a tattoo representing his soulmate - Hansen? - wouldn't he have a tattoo representing Connor?  
This is the moment where if this was a movie, Connor would immediately know what symbol or picture to look for. However, Connor had no idea. What did the universe see as a representation of Connor? A frown? Bottle of nail polish? A joint?  
Connor really hoped poor Hansen didn't have to grow up with a tattoo of a joint on his forearm.  
Connor sighed. Who's to say Hansen even was his soulmate? Maybe by some freak accident Hansen just happened to know a lot about trees, completely unrelated to the tattoo on Connor's arm. Maybe his soulmate was crushed under this-this dragon's blood tree and killed instantly and that's why Connor never found them.  
Even with all the doubts filling Connor's head, he had to make sure. He had to see Hansen's soulmate tattoo.  
Only problem is, how can Connor, the high school's resident delinquent and anger issues kid, just walk up to Hansen, the resident nervous and reserved kid, and ask to see his tattoo?  
Connor let his forehead fall to the surface of the lunch table. This was stupid. Soulmates were stupid. Stupid universe, stupid soulmate tattoos and stupid Larry.  
Connor sighed again. He knew he couldn't let this go. He had never paid particularly much attention to Hansen before, therefore he had never had a negative thought about him either, unlike most of the student body, but today had really shone a different, new light on the fidgety boy in Connor's eyes. He was too invested now. Even if Hansen wasn't his soulmate, maybe he could help find them, he did seem to know an awful lot about trees. Who has a favorite tree species anyway?  
The bell rang. Connor had officially wasted his lunch hour on absentmindedly staring at Hansen. Shit. He got up and started making his way toward the doors. He needed a cigarette to clear his head.  
He was just about to push open the main doors, when Hansen's blue shirt came into his field of vision. He was fumbling with a locker combo near the main doors. Connor stood still for a second, and then his feet started moving without much thought being put into it.  
Suddenly he was standing next to Hansen, who noticed a person in his personal space right away.  
He looked unsure.  
"H-hi? Am-am I in your way?" Hansen asked.  
"Huh? No! No, it's fine." Connor replied and scratched the back of his neck.  
"Oh. Good." Hansen said and apparently was expecting Connor to go about his business, but instead Connor just stood there and stared, not knowing how to approach the problem at hand, which made Hansen look just as nervous and uncomfortable.  
"I uh… I was wondering…" Connor started, still unsure how his sentence was going to end.  
"Ye-yeah?" Hansen replied nervously. He still seemed like he was worried he'd done something wrong.  
Connor mentally face palmed. This had to stop.  
"Shit, okay, I'm not good at this, social interaction shit, so: Since you saw mine, I was just curious, what's your tattoo like?" Connor blurted out.  
Hansen stared at him wide eyed, surprised to hear what Connor had to say. He blinked several times before finally talking.  
"O-oh, uhm, sure, well, h-here." Hansen stuttered and lifted his left arm to show Connor his soulmate tattoo.  
Connor held his breath for a while, preparing himself, for what? He wasn't quite sure.  
Still, he wasn't prepared for what he saw.  
Hansen's skinny forearm was filled with scribbles that looked pencil made. The style was messy, but after a second look, you could clearly make out a silhouette of a melancholy looking young man.  
Connor was speechless.  
Connor used to love drawing, but Larry had thought it was girly and a waste of time, so Connor let it go.  
The crazy part?  
Connor was pretty sure the last picture he ever drew, was forever tattooed on Hansen's arm.  
Connor wasn't sure how long he'd been silently staring at Hansen's arm, until Hansen spoke up.  
"Does-does that mean something to you?" He carefully asked.  
Connor lifted his eyes from Hansen's arm to his face. His uncertainty was mirrored in Hansen's eyes.  
"What?" Was all he could get out.  
"I-well…" Hansen tried to find his words too. "The, uh, the dragon blood tree on-on your arm? It, it kind of surprised me cause, I mean, it would be something I could imagine being on my- my, uh, you know, and I figured a long time ago that my tattoo represented my soulmate, and, well, so my soulmate would have a t-tattoo representing me, and-and I obviously looked for tattoos that could, you know, be, well, me, but I was never sure about-about any, ever, except, that, well… I was just really surprised about your tattoo, but of course I could be wrong, I'm not saying you, that you know, you would be my- I'm not saying this has to be it, it was just- it was the most… I don't know, I just felt… something. But I mean, it's a two-way street, I could totally be talking out of my- uh, maybe I'm wrong-"  
Connor was afraid Hansen might have a stroke or forget to breathe, so he stepped in.  
"Dude, Hansen, calm down."  
Hansen snapped his mouth shut right away. "Sorry."  
"No, don't apologize." Connor reassured him and took a step closer, suddenly aware of the public setting such an important conversation was taking place.  
"Okay, sorry, I mean, uh, shit." Hansen sighed.  
That made Connor laugh. "I've never heard you swear before."  
Hansen blushed. "I, I mean I try not to, much, you know."  
Connor smiled. He hadn't smiled this much in a long time.  
"I uh… I used to draw. And uh, that, that thing," he said, pointing at Hansen's arm, "is literally the last thing I ever drew. So…" He explained, letting his sentence and its meaning hang in the air between them.  
Hansen was quiet for a while, looking at his tattoo. Then he looked up at Connor.  
"Why'd you stop?"  
Connor was left frozen in place again. That was not what he expected Hansen, now pretty much confirmed as his soulmate, to say to such revelation.  
"I, why did I stop drawing?" He asked. Hansen nodded. "Uh, well, my dad… My dad is an asshole." He stated simply. Hansen nodded again.  
"I get it. I mean, I think I do. Mine's… Mine's not- not the greatest either, so…" Hansen explained. "Anyway, I hope… I hope you won't stop for, you know, for good, because… Well I always liked my tattoo, it-it's beautiful. Really."  
Connor suddenly felt a warmness he never felt before. Hansen had been right there, in the same school, in the same classes, for years, and he had no idea he was so… He just fit. Being around Hansen didn't make Connor angry or uncomfortable. He didn't feel like a loser. He felt… Normal. Good. He felt good.  
"So…" He spoke up, a ghost of a smile on his lips.  
"So…" Hansen - he should probably refer to his soulmate by his first name, so, Evan - echoed.  
"You wanna go for a ride?" Connor asked, desperately wanting to get out of the smelly high school and learn everything he could about Evan, his soulmate.  
"Sure." Evan said, the most beautiful smile taking over his pale face.  
Connor smiled back.  
"You nervous?" He asked, his voice making it clear that he wasn't just talking about a car ride, but their future.  
Evan blushed and looked down before turning to look Connor in the eye, smiling widely.  
"Not really."

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 **Please review! xx -S**


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